1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for generating a visiting plan and a system therefor. More particularly, the invention pertains to a visiting plan generating method and system wherein, for a plurality of groups having invariable and/or variable members (persons or apparatuses) to visit a plurality of destinations on a task-sharing basis, optimum formation of the plural groups, optimum destination assignment to the plural groups, and optimum planning for each of the plural groups can be carried out.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a typical example of a problem concerning generation of an optimum visiting plan, there is a classic mathematical problem called the Traveling Salesman Problem, in which an order of visiting a plurality of cities through a minimum total path is to be determined on the assumption that a visit must be made to each of the plural cities only once. That is to say, in the Traveling Salesman Problem, a travel distance uniquely determined according to an order of visiting cities is used as a cost function to seek an optimum solution. For example, an approximate solution to the Traveling Salesman Problem has been proposed by Hopfield, J. J. and Tank, D. W. (Hopfield, J. J. & Tank, D. W., (1985) “Neural” Computation of Decisions in Optimization Problems, Biological Cybernetics, 52, pp. 141–152) using the Hopfield model (Hopfield, J. J., (1984) Neurons with graded response have collective computational properties like those of two-state neurons; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 81, pp. 3088–3092).
In the Traveling Salesman Problem handled in conventional solution methods, however, optimization has been attempted on the premise that a single salesman is to visit all the cities of interest.
In a situation where one salesman cannot cover all the cities of interest, it is required to make assignment to a plurality of salesmen. An optimum solution method in such a case has not been devised heretofore, however.